WSOP 1999
If there was any year from the decade of the 1990s that could be fairly described as turbulent, both on the domestic and international fronts, that year would be 1999. And, in retrospect, there should be nothing so surprising about this fact. After all, we were entering or about to enter a new millennium.
As you may recall, the Y2K scare had us all by the throats, convinced that the technological revolution which we had enjoyed for so many years was about to come back and haunt us all in a big way. It seemed like every governmental, financial and military institution was going to utterly collapse at the stroke of midnight when all the digits turned up 0 on the digital calendar. I can vividly remember purchasing my very own Y2K survival kit, which included: two gallons of water, a clean plain pair of underwear, some batteries, four back-issues of Penthouse, a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, a deck of playing cards, a miniature Bible and a pair of water wings.
Fortunately, I was not called upon to use the contents of that survival kit (well, not all of them) although I was personally acquainted with a number of people who were disappointed that the millennium breakdown did not come to pass. But, I tended to notice that these were mainly guys who had not been on a date since the Reagan administration, so I didn't take their apocalyptic lamenting all that seriously.
Anyway, 1999 was spectacular year at the World Series Poker and luckily this event took place during this summer, which was too early in the year for any Y2K nutcases to become nuisances in Las Vegas. It would indeed have been tragic for any kind of outside interference to distract from all the absolutely fabulous poker that was played at Binion's casino that year.
As usual, the number of contestants only continued to grow. Maybe there was a feeling that this would be the last WSOP before the proverbial excrement hit the fan and thus a total of 393 determined competitors showed up at the tournament.
And yet, amid all the confusion and excitement, one thing was for sure: there would only be one winner at the end of the day, as there always had been since the first World Series of Poker 1970. Shocking just about every person in attendance, the 1999 champion was none other then Noel Furlong, the crafty Irishman. He walked away with a bracelet and $1,000,000, with which I am sure he was able to buy a much more comprehensive Y2K survival kit than I could afford. Or maybe he was too smart to be suckered into that scam in the first place.
by Arthur Crowson
